Rich & Lost in Prosperia: A Tropical Tale of Market Economics Reviewed By Lois Henderson of Bookpleasures.com

Lois C. Henderson

Reviewer Lois
C. Henderson: Lois is a freelance academic editor and back-of-book indexer,
who spends most of her free time compiling word search puzzles for
tourism and educative purposes. Her puzzles are availableHERE and HEREHer Twitter
account (@LoisCHenderson) mainly focusses on the toponymy of British
place names. Please feel welcome to contact her with any feedback at
LoisCourtenayHenderson@gmail.com.

Ever wished that Market Economics 101
was written in the form of an easily accessible story? Well, wish no
more—Rich & Lost in Prosperia is here to help ease all your
nightmares of that particular subject. Inspired to teach young people
about economics in a creative and enjoyable way, longstanding
economist Doramas Jorge-Calderón has come up with a tropical tale
set on a couple of neighboring isles that helps explain the basics of
what typically is a dry and dusty subject. Young adults will love
this adventure story of how two dudes master the basics of island
life to their entrepreneurial mutual benefit. And, no, it’s not all
fiction, but grounded in solid Economics theory, which is presented
in straightforward point form, in between chapters containing the
unraveling of the story, in which the principles can be seen in
practice.

Richy, one of the cool dudes referred to
earlier, is a native of Prosperia, which is depicted as “an ocean
island between the tropic and the equator, not too far from the
continent.” Though he would have loved to have gone to college and
study (right, I didn’t say the story line was particularly
credible, now did I?), he wasn’t able to, as he’d been a lousy
scholar. However, our anti-hero and ostensible island dropout has big
dreams—he wants to run his own business and be free (somewhat of a
dichotomy in terms, m’thinks…), so, being an exploratory soul
(with the mega ambition of taking a long trip to the neighboring
island of Stagnia), he sets about realizing his dream. Alongside this
young guy with inflationary hopes is another local 20s+ character,
whose sole ambition is to make boodle, and lots of it. When Richy is
taken in hand by a handy economics prof, things really start to
rumble. These are only a few of the entertaining characters who make
up the cast of this novel come introductory text to market economics.
Boring it most definitely isn’t, with the plot dealing with a range
of relevant topics, including privilege, profit, trust, respect,
trickery, professionalism, smuggling, half-truths, competition and
passion. A positive maelstrom of delights…

Seriously
though, this 281-page book is a gem, and well worth reading by any
youngster who feels overwhelmed by unwieldy subject matter and the
straitjacket of hardcore academia. Now if only Jorge-Calderón would
loose himself on a couple of other subjects, like law, IT, and
suchlike I’m sure that the younger generation would be only the
happier…